View the Atlas Shrugged Movie Trailer Today!

The first public showing of this preview will be seen at a FreedomWorks event at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. the afternoon of February 11. It will then go live online for all to see.

This film is the first installment of a trilogy of Ayn Rand’s epic novel and will open in theaters on April 15.

The movie will succeed or not based on the quality of the writing. If the writer or writers honed the story down to its basic dramatic elements, the movie might even be "actor-proof" and "director-proof." It's amazing how a solidly-written story can carry a movie even if the other elements are not completely up-to-snuff.

Except for the Galt tagline, I didn't get any particular impression about the dialogue. If it's merely lifted from the novel, it'll be deadly. Movie audiences don't want speeches or lectures.

If my impressions of the film -- based only on the trailer -- are correct, then it's the sort of film that might do well the first few weekends mainly because of curiosity, especially on the part of Rand fans. Soon after that, however, I expect that old-fashioned word-of-mouth will kill it entirely.

I always thought AS would do well as a 5-part TV movie. It would allow more scope for telling the story and for including more elements that have only a peripheral relation to the main theme and plotline. For that matter, I think an actual television series would be even better, as it would allow more time for the characters to develop and make an impression on the viewers. During any particular episode, viewers could then say to themselves "Yes, that is precisely the sort of thing James Taggart [and those whom I know that are like him in real life!] would do."

Anyway, like Rand herself, I shall carry a Good Luck charm with me, hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

It was always going to be jetfuel for the envious, but if the plot is not perverted too much it will reach those with whom Ayn shared an inexplicable personal alchemy.

I suspect it may find many of those among the disillusioned ipod generation. At least we had Peter Stuyvesant ads and the relative excesses of the eighties to fuel our aspiration, but the new ones on the block have bugger all.

All aspiration to wealth, pride and enjoyment has been stripped from our ethos by a culture hellbent on the regression of man. Everywhere I go, "getting by with less" and "lowering of footprints" have become the new catch phrase. What a perfectly constructed cop-out fom those who weren't capable of producing any kind of discernible footprint in the first place.

The movie can only be a force for the better insofar as dissolving the excuse of ignorance for those too willing to feign it, just as the novel has done brilliantly until now among those who had the courage and cognitive tools with which to digest it.

Unfortunately the majority of youths today cannot digest anything other than youtube clips, facebook farts and twittering tweets, so the movie, however far it misses our imagined ideal would hopefully cater to the shortcomings of the cognitively disabled among the "now" generations.

SOLO may be in for a rush of new members during the next year methinks.

I certainly hope it does not become jetfuel for the other side, though I can totally see this happening. It is all very slick, indeed.. it needs to evoke empathy for the heroes, and if they're too gecko-like, it may be difficult. It's too early to tell. And also this is the first installment, before society really 'gets ugly'.

[edit]

On second thought... the potential spirit-fuel for individuals who need Rand's ideas, along with those who already embrace them, may be much more powerful than the collectivists' hijacking of the movie's potential short-comings or misrepresentations.

Too slick...at first glance it reenacts too much of Oliver Stone's "Gecko" smugness. The background and settings should have portrayed a world dying and heading for post apocalyptic decay rather than ultra slick pomo glitz.

Impressive nevertheless, and I would only be able to judge after viewing the whole series whether it's just going to become jetfuel for the envious egalitarian mobs, or whether it has enough authenticity to connect and become the cult icon it should be, the likes of Bladerunner et al.

I had goosebumps the whole time. How compelling romantic realism can be in film! The power of Rand's ideas in film is what excites me so much, especially growing up in an age where visual media trumps literature; for better or for worse. Dagny's face is perfect.

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The opinions expressed here are the unmoderated views of the contributors who express them.They do not necessarily reflect the views of other contributors, or of SOLO, and do not necessarily align with Objectivism.